How would a Bard class work in WoW?

I see a lot of requests for this class in various threads. I really don't understand why people think some guy singing in the middle of a battle is cool, but I guess Bards are very popular among some people.

Anyways, my question to the Bard proponents is this; How exactly do you see this class being workable in WoW? There are cases like Lullaby and War Drums which has a musical vibe to it, but beyond that, how exactly would this class work?

There's also a poll up to see how interested people are in this class. Thanks for your responses.

Because the Bard seems to be a staple in many RPGs and WoW is missing it. They seem effectively different enough from the other classes. The way they should work, is that they are a major buff class that also is good at CC (like good enough to have what would effectively be two polymorphs) and they could also have debuffs. But with homogenization of classes and the bring the player not the class mentality, it would never work that way since that doesn't fit nicely into the tank/dps/healer trinity. In the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons, they were considered a jack of all trades and had a few healing spells, a few wizard spells, could wear heavy armor if they gave up spell casting, and were the person that you had do the dialog. They could easily be the mail armor class that the next class will need. Not sure how blizzard will place them in a game though.

I loved my Bard on Rift and my Chanter on Aion... What I didn't like everyone bitching at me in to respec to a proper DPS spec or bring a different character because my buffs didn't contribute enough to warrant the specs lack of DPS.

I love support based specs/classes, but they're rarely balanced properly; they'll either be underpowered and people would rather take a spec with more DPS and less support, or horribly OP and everyone will want one in a group.

I always think of Edward from FFIV when I think of the Bard class. He meant well, but he just....sucked.

Could be fun if done right though. I could see them singing songs that give group buffs or something. Seems to be like they wouldn't really fit in WoW though. I can't think of enough cool bard abilities to fill three different talent specs.

Originally Posted by SourceOfInfection

Sometimes you gotta stop sniffing used schoolgirl panties and start being a fucking samurai.

Originally Posted by Tradewind

"there are people with dildo's older than you, your opinions do not matter."

Anyways, my question to the Bard proponents is this; How exactly do you see this class being workable in WoW?

Truth is....I don't. At least not as a class I would recognise as a bard.

A class needs to do enough damage so he can solo and level appropriately.
He can't bring so much utility others classes are redundant
He can't bring buffs so powerful that he becomes essential.
CC is already of limited usefulness in much PvE and too powerful in PvP in many ways.
The next class will likely wear mail and Bards strike me as a leather wearer.

The only viable pathway I can see to introduce Bards is to integrate the Bard into the rogue, as a way to improve their utility.

Other than that, you either develop a class that shares the name and musical motif but little else or you develop a class that pretty much plays like a rogue, but has subpar damage and some utility.

The problem is that in most iterations of the bard class in games, they are for all intents and purposes a buff class. The are a jack of all trades but a master of none. They mostly make other classes better.

This is something blizz has moved away from, paladins in vanilla were the buff class, and in TBC you had a shaman in every group because totems only buffed 1 group not the entire raid.

That's not to say bards cant be something else other than "the guy who is only there to buff me".

The Blade kit for Bards in Baldur's Gate 2 does very well on their own, and is more than just the guy who busts out a few tunes to buff the group.

My name is Cernunnos, I will love you like no other, I have died a thousand deaths, each time I died I thought of you.

They could be made into a full support class with a healing spec and a DPS spec. The support spec would probably be great but extremely hard to balance (plus people mind Recount way too much to be seen as only supporting others).

This makes me miss my treasure hunting bard from UO. I don't see it being workable in WoW though. Most of what makes traditional bards what they are is their buffing/debuffing. Most buffs are accounted for and "spread" around now among the classes.

I would LOVE a bard class but they would be full support with some healing and a lot of utility. They would contribute some damage, some healing, some damage reduction, some buffs. Just a little bit of everything. They wouldn't shine on meters but that doesn't matter as long as you're still contributing.

They could be made into a full support class with a healing spec and a DPS spec. The support spec would probably be great but extremely hard to balance (plus people mind Recount way too much to be seen as only supporting others).